


If The Universe Says So (I'll Give It Some Thought)

by raendown



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [108]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 08:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21491650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: The universe is trying to tell her something - but whether or not she's willing to listen, she hasn't decided yet.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [108]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533161
Comments: 8
Kudos: 83





	If The Universe Says So (I'll Give It Some Thought)

She sees fire when she meets them, fire and water and so many deaths all standing behind them that she turns and flees before logical thoughts can catch up with her. By that time she’s a dozen streets away and she doesn’t remember where she saw them in this strange city she knows so little about. It take months of accumulating to her new home and the area surrounding it before Sakura finds that same rundown park and sees them again.

They don’t see her that time, hidden as she keeps herself behind a copse of withered trees, but Sakura stays for as long as they do and simply watches. Plain clothing and innocuous body language wouldn’t mark them as anything special to someone who didn’t know who they were. She knows. When she looks at them she can see armor and war, fire and water clashing, blood and pain and dying breaths. To look at one is to fear the spinning patterned eyes that exist no more and to look at the other is to wonder what became of the seals tattooed on to pale skin.

Neither of them are the men they once were, she tells herself. In this life they are no more than she is. Human. There will be no feats of superhuman strength and no controlling the elements with little more than correctly shaping their hands together. Whatever life they lived before has nothing to do with this one. It doesn’t stop her fear.

Sakura visits the park sometimes just to watch them there, curious for hints of the men she had once been so afraid of as another version of herself, yet all she ever sees is two men of middling class lounging on the same park bench, side by side with their phones in hand and occasionally engaging in quiet conversation. She wonders often what brings them here but it takes nearly a year and a full turn of the seasons before finally she gathers the courage to ask. When she approaches, however, their expressions are an answer unto themselves.

“Finally,” one says, blowing an impatient huff that upsets the dark bangs framing his face.

“Did you get lost?” the other asks with a hint of dry humor.

Sakura swallows down her nerves and clears her throat. “Lost? What do you mean?”

“We’ve been waiting for you since the first time we met here. An interesting coincidence, to be sure, for all three of us to pass through the same park at the same time. Madara and I have gotten to know each other quite well as we waited.” Red eyes smile at her and she wants to compare them to the color of all the blood he has spilled – but can she say she was ever any better?

“I…was afraid,” she admits. The words chafe and pull at her thorny pride but if she wants to understand what this is then honesty can only help more than it can hurt.

“What do we look like to you?” The other, Madara, asks.

After waiting a moment for context she can only shrug helplessly and shake her head, confused. He grumbles about repeating himself.

“You look like healing to us,” he says. “I see life when I look at you, so many lives and all of them touched in some way by your hands. Like you carry a light or something.” He doesn’t look very comfortable with the poetic quality of his own words but a brush of the paler man’s hand keeps him calm.

“I see death,” Sakura admits.

For a long time all they do is stare. She thinks for several moments that her answer must have disappointed them yet neither seem very surprised. Eventually Madara blows at his bangs again and looks away with sometimes heavy and tired in his eyes. It’s the other man who hums as though her words have given him much to think about and meets her gaze without hesitation.

“We’ll make a good balance, I suppose,” he says. Then as he hold out a hand he murmurs, “My name is Tobirama. Will you join us?”

Almost without thought Sakura nods. She joins them. Caught up in the moment as she is, it won’t be until several years later that she will think back to that day and take a moment to be grateful that she was brave enough to do so. The universe wanted the three of them to be together for one reason or another and, though they may never find the answer for why, Sakura supposes it doesn’t matter. Having these men who mean so much to her by her side is enough.


End file.
